FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to a transportable baby safety seat which is adapted to safely support infants and small children. The safety seat is intended for use when a child is placed in a hard seating device such as a shopping cart or a high chair. Supermarket shopping carts and high chair usually have seats which are sized to accommodate infants and small children but are not provided with any cushioning or with a supplemental restraining system that cooperates by a permanently attached safety belt to firmly yet comfortably support an infant or small child in the sitting position while protecting head, neck and back from injury.
Most modern supermarket shopping carts are provided with a foldable seat that is sized to accommodate small children. These seats are typically provided with two openings in the shopping cart that allow the child's legs to extend through the end panel of the shopping cart and a safety belt that is fastened about the child's waist to prevent the child from accidentally falling out of the shopping cart. These wire mesh carts may have a flat plastic seating panel but typically do not have any type of resilient cushioning to protect the child or enhance the comfort of the seated child. The lack of a comfortable seat exacerbates the discontent of most small children who are restrained or forced into involuntary inactivity.
In the prior art, seats which have been popularly called "infant seats", have been used to provide portable seating for infants and small children. These seats have typically been provided with a rigid supporting member and a form fitting cushion. The rigid support member is typically articulated in order to allow the seat to be adjusted from the upright sitting position to a reclining position. When the typical "infant seat" is carried around it provides a comfortable seat which provides adequate and safe support for infants and small children. Its principal deficiency is that it is too large to fit in the childs seat in a typical supermarket wire mesh shopping cart without tipping over. If it is placed side ways in the child's seat of a supermarket wire mesh shopping cart, it is not possible to properly engage the seat belts that are provided. Flexible infant carriers are known which have a plurality of straps to allow an adult to transport the infant without the use of the hands. These devices are not capable of providing a comfortable seat cushion and protective cushioning to the back, neck and head. Examples of prior devices and infant carrying and/or cushioning systems are found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,108,489: 5,121,965; 5,178,309: U.S. Pat. No. D296,370 and U.S. Pat. No. D342,835 all of which are incorporated by reference.